OpenOffice.org announced the immediate availability of OpenOffice 2, an open source alternative to Microsoft Office, on October 20. The office suite includes Writer (word processor), Calc (spreadsheet), Impress (presentation tool), Draw (drawing tool), and Base (database tool).
OpenOffice files are compatible with Microsoft Office documents, as well as the OASIS OpenDocument format. It requires Appleis X11, included with Mac OS X, to operate. OpenOffice 2 is free, and can be downloaded from the OpenOffice.org web site.